12 Million Misdiagnoses Occur Yearly in US, Study Finds

April 16, 2014 11:04 PM

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At least one in 20 U.S. adults, or 12 million people yearly, may be misdiagnosed when they go to see their doctors, a new study suggests.

What's more, researchers estimated that about half of these diagnosis errors could lead to serious harm, such as when doctors fail to follow up on "red flags" for cancer in patients who are ultimately diagnosed with the condition.